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Music Theory - Coggle Diagram
Music Theory
Tempo
Pace of a song
Beat
Standard unit of time in music
Measured in BPM (beats per minute)
more equals a faster song
less equals a slower song
40 - 250 BPM is the most common range
Time Signature
Determines how music is to be counted
Appear like fractions
4/4
Most common time signature
4 beats in a bar and lengths of notes in this bar must add up to the equivalent of 4 quarter notes
First number is how many beats are in a bar
Bottom number is the length of beat to count
Notes
Composed of a pitch and a duration
Pitch is the frequency of a sound (hz) and determines how high or low a note is
Often represented through a piano
lowest note on an 80 key piano is A0, then every white note follows the pattern (B0, C0, D0, E0, F0, G0, A1, A2 etc.)
Gaps between two keys on a piano is called a half step or semitone.
Black notes are know as sharps and flats
A sharp (#) is what you call a black key when you're going up from one white key to the left. i.e going from a C#0, up to a black key (left to right) would be a C#0
A flat is like sharp except it's going back down from a white key to a black key (right to left) so going from the right instead using the previous example for sharp it would be D0 to D flat 0
Chords
Multiple notes played in harmony at the same time
Most common kind consists of 3 notes and is called a triad
Major Triad
To make a major chord, pick your root note, then draw another note 4 semitones above that and one last one 3 semitones above that. This makes a total of 7 above your root.
Can also be done by drawing in a major scale, then pick a note to be your root, then every other nte, draw in another triad note until you have your triad. Major triad chord is referred to having the pattern (1-3-5)
Minor Triad
To make a minor triad, just drop the 2nd note down by one semitone (So that would be 3 semitones up and then 4 semitones up. Again, a total of 7 semitones above your root note)
You acn add more notes to the triad i.e by skipping another scale note in the alternative method
Named after it's root note and it's quality
Scales
A collection of notes that sound good when played together
If it doesn't sound good, it's considered to be off key
Types of scales
Major
Sound happy
Can be placed on any root note
A good trick is to draw on all white keys starting from C and ending at C (A Cmaj scale), to change the scale drag it to any root note
Minor
Sound sad
Similarly to major scale, start at A adn end at A and then drag to create your minor scales
Each scale has a root note which it is named after
An example is Cmaj (a major scale starting at C)
Popular because it uses only the white keys
Frequencies
Have names
A, B, C, D, E, F, G
Any frequency value that is an exact multiple of these notes is also considered the same pitch, just played slower or faster
The gap between those notes is called an octave
To distingush between the two notes they are often given their letter name and an octave number
i.e A4 (440hz) and A5 (880hz)